At just 35, Grace Wales Bonner has achieved what many only dream of, becoming the first Black woman to lead menswear at Hermès, one of the world’s most storied luxury houses.
The South London–born designer’s appointment marks a defining moment in fashion history and a testament to her quiet yet powerful influence on global style.
Her name might not be familiar to everyone, but her work certainly is. Wales Bonner is the creative mind behind the Adidas Samba revival, transforming a once-humble football shoe into the must-have fashion item of the decade.
Her reimagined designs, from silver foil finishes to rich leopard prints, have been spotted on everyone from Rihanna to Rishi Sunak, helping drive Adidas searches up by an astonishing 13,227%. The success reshaped streetwear and helped swing the brand from a €377 million loss to a €57 million profit.
When Hermès announced her as successor to Véronique Nichanian, who led the men’s division for nearly four decades, the fashion world responded with a collective nod of approval. As Pierre-Alexis Dumas, the brand’s general artistic director, put it, Wales Bonner’s “appetite and curiosity for artistic practice strongly resonate with Hermès’ creative mindset.”
Her first collection will debut in January 2027, marking the start of a new era for the French luxury giant.
Since founding her eponymous label in 2014, just after graduating from Central Saint Martins, Wales Bonner has embodied intellectual craftsmanship, merging Afro-Atlantic identity, art, and tailoring into a language uniquely her own. She’s won the €300,000 LVMH Prize, expanded her studio to 17 employees, and grown her business by over 100% in three years.
Her clothes are deeply considered, drawing inspiration from Black identity, diaspora aesthetics, and hybrid cultural codes — from Haile Selassie to Jean-Michel Basquiat, from Savile Row to Notting Hill Carnival.
“You can be wearing something traditional but with sneakers,” she once told the Financial Times. “That duality — hybridity — it’s about being between two things. That’s the space I think is interesting.”
That spirit of duality runs through her life. Born to a Jamaican father and a British mother, she often credits her daily bus rides across London as a teenager for shaping her worldview. Watching people from all backgrounds blend styles, sharp tailoring with streetwear, heritage prints with modern cuts, gave her the foundation for her design philosophy: bridging worlds through fashion.
In the years since, Wales Bonner’s aesthetic has quietly redefined what luxury looks like. Her Adidas collaborations have sold out within hours, inspired legions of copycats, and earned her global acclaim. At the 2025 Met Gala, she dressed Lewis Hamilton, FKA twigs, and Jeff Goldblum, cementing her status as a new power in modern design.
Yet what makes her story most inspiring isn’t just her creative success, it’s what her rise symbolizes. At a time when conversations about representation in fashion often ring hollow, Grace Wales Bonner stands as proof of what happens when quiet excellence meets opportunity. She hasn’t just made the Samba cool again; she’s reshaped the rhythm of fashion itself.
